Welcome back to Toy Aisle, our regular round up of the cool toys that have an eye on reducing the amount of dollars in our piggy banks. This week: Japan’s weirdest Pikachu meme in a while gets its own plush, Figuarts takes on old Han and old Luke, NECA gets video game-y with the Ninja Turtles, and catharsis comes in the form of throwing some foam axes. Check it out!
Tamashii Nations S.H. Figuarts Star Wars: The Last Jedi Luke Skywalker and The Force Awakens Han Solo
On Game of Thrones, Rory McCann somehow managed to turn one of the series’ most ruff and gruff characters into a fan favourite, but we’re at a loss as to why S.H. Figuarts has put a lightsaber in his hand. What’s that? That’s actually supposed to be Mark Hamill as old man Luke, not McCann as the Hound? Thankfully, Harrison Ford’s return as Han Solo in The Force Awakens is better represented in this six-inch highly posable figure. Both Han and Luke, sporting his Force projection getup from The Last Jedi, are available for preorder now for about $US60 ($88) each, but we’re gonna go with the dead guy here, and not the blue ghost.
Pokémon Detective Pikachu Wrinkled Face Plush
Presumably channeling Pikachu’s reaction after actually seeing his first live-action movie, this new plush toy dubbed “Wrinkled Face” Pikachu on the official Pokémon news Twitter feed is equal parts heartbreaking and adorable. Pikachu’s pained reaction could be the result of endless factors, from suffering through a kidney stone to just watching the evening news. There’s no details on specific availability for this plush, but it’s expected to arrive sometime this spring.
Amazing Yamaguchi Harley Quinn
Revoltech’s line of super-posable superhero figures has given us some great Marvel and DC characters already, but the company is knocking it out of the park — pun intended — with this Harley Quinn. She comes armed with her trusty bat, and not only is the comic aesthetic represented in Harley’s attire, but with some very cool extra accessories to attached to her variety of weapons (a mallet, of course, is also included), adding some very fancy comic book onomatopoeia to your display. Whether Harley’s cracking skulls or swinging around, “Boofsh!” is an extremely good word.
Aside from the onomatopeia, Harley includes three interchangeable faces, sets of extra hands to pose her with either her baseball bat or her mallet, and even roller derby skates to showcase one of her more recent comics hobbies. She’ll set you back around $US70 ($103) when she releases in Japan this December.
NECA Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time Video Game Figures
One of the best multiplayer arcade games of all time made a fairly successful transition to home consoles, and ahead of San Diego Comic-Con 2019 NECA teased an upcoming line of 7-inch figures based on Konami’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time video game. The figures feature designs inspired by the popular animated series, but with updated paint jobs to make them look pixelated and straight out of the 16-bit era. When eventually available and sold at specialty stores, they’ll also include game-specific accessories like the hoverboards they rode in that frustrating sewer-surfing level. You can pre-order them from BigBadToyStore.
Star Wars Home Arcade Game
Before Battlefront, before Dark Forces, even well before X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter made DOS a great gaming platform, Star Wars fans of the early ‘80s had to rely on a collection of quarter-gobbling arcade machines to experience what it was like to pilot a star fighter.
Now considered classics, the original arcade machines are hard to come by, but Arcade1Up, known for its IKEA-like DIY cabinets, has created a working scaled-down replica that stands a little over five feet tall. The Star Wars Home Arcade Game includes the original arcade games released for A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, as well as a faithful recreation of the flight stick used to play each one. It’s available for pre-order at GameStop in the U.S. now for $US500 ($736) and will ship in mid-October. As we’ve mentioned before, U.S.-only shipping is a pain in the arse — but it can be overcome fairly simply.
Zing Zax Foam Throwing Axe
You can thank the hipsters for the inexplicable rise in popularity of axe throwing. But just because you wear plaid shirts and a well-oiled beard doesn’t mean you can’t accidentally hurt yourself while hurling sharpened tools at a target.
Zing has created a much safer but no less satisfying alternative with Zax throwing axes. Made from the same kind of foam that’s kept Nerf toys safe for decades, it adds three soft suction cups that can stick to almost any flat and smooth surface in your home with a satisfying thwap! At $US10 ($15) each they’re cheap, and you’ll never have to worry about a bad throw putting a hole in a wall — or one of your friends. You can get these from Kmart.